Friday, 2 November 2012

Difficulty in RPG Scenarios

If you need each post of this blog to have “IMHO”
and “YMMV” written into it, this is probably not the blog post for you. I recommend that you just move along to the
next blog. Today I’d like to talk about
something that relates to the sandbox series of posts, fudging, and the Dungeon
Crawl Classics role playing game.
The topic is difficulty in role-playing game scenarios.

What is difficulty? In this context, I am talking about when the
players need to strive in order to succeed.
Note that I am not talking about their characters needing to
strive – “The swamp is infested with leeches” has little bearing on the players,
unless the players have reason to believe that the characters will be affected
mechanically. Nor am I talking about “pretend
difficulties”, which miraculously clear themselves up regardless of what the
players do (through fudging, for example, or the “timely” intervention of NPCs,
or whathaveyou).

Contrary to what years of WotC-D&D have
told you, a “difficult fight” is not simply one where the characters’ resources are
stretched or used up, it is one where the players cannot rely on their usual
tactics and still win, regardless of how their characters end the
scenario. In other words, even if the
characters are beaten, bruised, and bloody at the end of the scenario, if they
win without the players having to stretch their imaginations to figure out some
new tactic beyond what they conventionally use, the scenario is not really difficult.

Because the game is about the players’
experience; the characters’ act as a conduit to that experience.

I recently ran a modified version of the
haunted house from The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh as a 0-level character funnel. It resulted in a TPK, as the players did not
decide upon a stealthy approach, and eventually ran into almost all of the potential
opposition in a single go. Having
allowed intelligent opponents to know that they were there, they ended up
facing those opponents acting intelligently.
When things began to go south, they failed to change their tactics to
match the situation. And they died. Which is as it should be – changing the
outcome, fudging, or those other “GM tricks” to ameliorate outcomes train
players not to change tactics when things go south. Why should they, if they are consistently
rewarded with “almost failing”?

One of the most exciting things about the Dungeon
Crawl Classics game is the decision to make monsters monstrous. Not only in the core rulebook, but in the
modules. Especially as the modules
contain encounters that encourage players to think laterally…or die. Even game mechanics like the warrior’s Mighty
Deed of Arms require players to think about what is happening in the game
situation, and strive for outcomes that will actually affect that situation.

The entire “Quest For It” section is a
breath a fresh air in a role-playing environment where PC options have become a
menu to select from. What a caveman
character? Here is a funnel adventure;
hope you survive. Want to learn a
specific spell? Your research indicates
it might be learned from the un-dead lips of a colossal sphinx. Good luck.

This sort of difficulty does not result in
characters who are “cool” just because you thought up a neat way to use the
rules – these characters are “cool” because you, as a player, overcame
difficulty and made them cool. And what
they have gained is cool because no one else can get the same simply by picking
up a splatbook or a character generator.
It is not bought. It is earned.

The original Dungeons & Dragons
modules were the same way; if you played them without fudging, players would
have to overcome difficulty or characters would die. A lot.
And that was glorious, because when you won, you had actually
accomplished something. You had to
become a cannier player, one who could read a situation, decide what response
was called for, and then – should events prove your decision wrong – adapt your
strategy on the fly.

I know that there are players who prefer
fudging. I know that there are players
who do not want to have to adapt, and who do not wish to face difficulty. I know that there are players who want to
feel the thrill of vicariously overcoming the illusion of difficulty without
ever actually having even their characters in danger. And, obviously, if you are one of these
players, you may play whatever you wish.
But the farther down this road you go, and the less difficulty included
in your games, the more that game becomes one where “there is no strategy
involved – players are never required to make choices, just follow directions.”

To my mind, how utterly boring.

Thankfully, I have been blessed with excellent
players over the years, including those who play in my regular weekly games and
in my play-by-posts. Thank you all,
current players and past! And thank you,
Joseph
Goodman & crew, for making a game that encourages the sort of
play where players face difficulty on a regular basis!

Well said. I couldn't agree more. I've been incredibly pleased with my DCC experience, so far, and not just because it's a fun game with a great concept, but also because Goodman Games has conspired to ensure adequate support for the product by cranking out high quantities of high-quality modules. I'm also appreciative of their quick integration of their own forums on the website, and their attempts to encompass 3rd party products in their own printing and advertising. It really helped to build a community around the game.

Thank you for your comments. I had more than half expected to instead be deluged with folks who disagreed! It is gratifying to know that there are still people out there who are interested in playing a primarily challenging game!

Search This Blog

Follow by Email

Disclosure

This blog has now moved to the OneBookShelf affiliate system. So, if you follow a link from here to RPGNow or DriveTrhuRPG and then make a purchase within the next 15 days, 5% of the purchase price (minus gift certificates) will be credited to my account. It costs you nothing; you can consider it a tip. The link can be adjusted in your browser to remove the affiliate tag, if you so desire.